'Radical Islam taking advantage of Christianity's decline in Britain'

London, May 29 : Radical Islam is threatening to fill a "moral vacuum" in Britain as a result of a decline of Christian values, a leading England bishop has warned.

The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, claimed that the Church dissolved its influence over the country's morals during the social and sexual revolution of the 1960s.

He said that the waning influence of Christianity had created a lack of principles that was allowing radical Islam to push its "comprehensive" claims.

Dr Nazir-Ali said that in its place, Britain had become gripped by the doctrine of "endless self-indulgence" which had led to the destruction of family life, rising levels of drug abuse and drunkenness and mindless violence on the streets.

Dr Nazir-Ali faced death threats earlier this year after he said some parts of Britain had become "no-go areas" for non-Muslims, The Telegraph reported.

His claims, in an article published in the new political magazine Standpoint, come just days after he accused the Church of England of failing in its duty to convert British Muslims to Christianity.

Dr Nazir-Ali claims in the new article that Britain, previously a "rabble of mutually hostile tribes," would never have become a global empire without the arrival of Christianity.

In an implicit criticism of the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent claim that the adoption of some parts of Islamic law is unavoidable, Dr Nazir-Ali said: "recognising its jurisdiction in terms of public law is fraught with difficulties precisely because it arises from a different set of assumptions from the tradition of law here."

He said that the Church of England must retain its importance in public life even if it does not remain privileged as the established church.